hell, that may have escaped the previous
processes. It may usually be deemed to be the final process of
cleansing.

2. To open out and disentangle the clusters of fibres into even
greater individualisation than existed when first picked, and to
leave them in such condition that the subsequent operations can
easily draw them out, and reduce them to parallel order.

3. The extraction of a good proportion of the short, broken and
unripe fibres, present more or less in all cottons grown, and
practically worthless from a manufacturing point of view.

4. The reduction of the heavy sheet or lap of cotton from the
scutcher, into a comparatively light and thin sliver. Ordinarily,
one yard of the lap put up behind the card weighs more than 100
times as heavy as the sliver delivered at the front of the card.

There are several varieties of Carding Engine, but in each case nearly
all the essential features are practically the same in one card as in
another. At the present time, the type of Carding Engine which has
practically superseded all others is denominated the "Revolving Flat
Card." This Card originated with Mr. Evan Leigh, of Manchester, and
after being in close competition with several other types has almost
driven them out of the market. Of course it has been considerably
improved by later inventors, and various machine makers have their own
technical peculiarities.

In the illustration seen in Fig. 15 there is conveyed an excellent idea
of the appearance of the heavy lap of cotton as it is placed behind the
Carding Engine, and of the manner in which the same cotton appears as a
"sliver" or soft strand of cotton as it issues from the front of the
same machine, and enters the cylindrical can into which it is passed,
and coiled into compact layers, suitable for withdrawal at the
immediately succeeding process.

Image: FIG. 15.--Two views of the carding engine: upper view, cotton
entering; lower view, cotton leaving.

In the main, the parts which operate upon the cotton fibres in their
passage through this machine consist of a number of cylinders or rollers
of various diameters, but practically equal in width. Some of these
rollers are merely to guide and conduct the cotton forward, but the more
important are literally bristling all over with a vast number of closely
set and finely drawn steel wire teeth, w